So it has been a few days since I arrived back from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, recognised as the largest telecommunications exhibition in the world. After walking an average of 9 kilometres a day around the numerous exhibition halls and standing (or leaning occasionally) at our exhibition stand for well over 10 hours from early morning to late evening… I needed to recover. After some much needed sleep I am glad to say my feet have also now reduced in size to now resemble normal extremities that reside at the end of my appendages. One lesson I need to remember is that is does not matter if your shoes are handmade in the UK or designed in Italy, they need to be comfortable and practical if you are going to attend an exhibition for any length of time.

So was the pain (mostly in my feet) worth it?

I have to say yes, the opportunity to meet with so many customers and partners over 4 busy days was extremely beneficial. More than 108,000 people walked through the vast exhibition halls in Fira, Barcelona, with more than 2,200 companies exhibiting over 100,000 square metres of floor space. Of course only a fraction of those passed by our own corporate exhibition stand, (we would have ran out of complimentary Popcorn and Bluetooth Camera Shutters very quickly if they had...) but those who did wander through Hall 7 to Stand 14 were all legitimately interested about our company and product offerings.

pipped at the post

An additional highlight of the event, was out of those 2,200 companies who exhibited, Neural Technologies were only one of a select few (less than fifty) to be shortlisted for a GSMA Glomo award. Sadly in our particular category we lost out to Samsung. I suppose losing out to Samsung is not so bad… a $177 billion in revenue, $16.5 billion in profit, $206.5 billion in assets and a $216 billion market value is not a bad company to be pipped at the post by… I can liken it to a near ‘David and Goliath’ moment. We even managed to get in front of the bright lights and contribute to a couple of Telecom TV interviews…

So apart from sore feet, a near Oscar award moment, what else did I and Neural Technologies achieve from the event? Well apart from experiencing some of the other exhibitors new product launches, relaunches of old technologies and old products getting a new breath of life. I am hoping next year that being at the largest mobile telecommunications event in the world, that an infrastructure of high quality (and complimentary) WiFi will be available. This will allow exhibitors and delegates who travel from all over the world to continue to remotely manage their business and not suffer the indignity of huddling around a WiFi hotspot with many other attendees to send out those backlogged emails, documents, purchase orders and contracts...

allow exhibitors and delegates who travel from all over the world to continue to remotely manage their business

Now did Neural Technologies sign any orders or sell a few platforms during these 4 days? No, and we never expected we would. But the heartening outcome was from the non-stop activity at our exhibition stand. We had the opportunity to catch up with customers and had extremely constructive meetings with potential, new and long standing partners alike. Some of the existing partner meetings were prearranged before the event, but many others were visitors who had identified possible synergies and opportunities to work together or to assist Neural Technologies to open new markets. These individuals had made the long and arduous walk over many metres of cheap nylon carpet to reach our exhibition stand and still had the energy to get animated about their business and opportunities.

The outcome of the many interactions and lengthy discussions over the 4 day period was that our Optimus platform. products and solution offerings can benefit many of these companies strategies and align to the demands of their own customers. This is positive news and I foresee our Director of Channels and Partners having some long days and nights ahead as we progress these discussions further over the coming days, weeks and months.

complimentary foot massages

So would I and Neural Technologies return to MWC next year? I and the company will be there - we are attracted like moths to light and this year it has clearly shown that you can get a return on investment. However we may change the format of how we present ourselves next year, we may for instance offer complimentary foot massages, I think we may do a roaring business…